Shrinking Universe
by leftsideofparadise
Summary: When Commander Tallis has an unexpected person appear on board her ship, she must team up with Atlantis to help him return to his home planet.


**Author's Note: First submission, R&R please. **

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><p><strong>Prologue: The Hands of Time and Space<strong>

Minerva watched as he appeared before her, his cat-like eyes glaring at her as she looked away shedding a silent tear for him. There was no hate in her serene face, only a deep sorrow that she could not save the fallen member of her flock. There was only one hope for him and if that failed, then so would the universe. Across time and space, she could hear them. . .the voices of the Ancients. Cetra.

Sephiroth wanted to kill her. Swirls of green energy surrounded him. His own dark energy began to combat it to keep it away from him. The Jenova cells that were separating from him had begun to infect the planet, and they found their way to the goddess. A bright light shone from her holding back the dark. With vile green eyes, he watched the dark matter consume the planet in sickness, death and misery. He would not be a mere memory, he would manifest himself and destroy the planet for his mother. Yet in the distance he could see a fatalistic white light, Holy. Then the goddess' shut eyes opened with a sudden brilliance, shining brighter than her image. From the green strange of the lifestream she made a bow notching an arrow her eyes bore into him. He turned his face away. In the shadows, he could hear the thousand voices of the Ancients.

_Forgive me, my child. _

And the arrow was fired, as it struck him he felt the pale light pierce into his soul, but his will would not easily submit to the white power. He would destroy the Planet, at any cost.

She was staring out into the hyperspace.

"Coming out of hyperspace, in two hours," announced of the technicians in front working with the Ancient interface.

"Right, Lieutenant Brin have medical get ready to transfer the most severe patients. I'll alert Atlantis as soon as we are in orbit," she announced.

"Yes, ma'am," nodded Brin as he stared at her. Even though her face set in a scowl, he could still see the fear and the pain that lingered on her slightly wrinkled brow. She was tired, her fingers were tracing the pale green orb that hung around it. Slowly she brought her left-hand to her lip gently putting it in the crease of her lip. Her hazel eyes squinting ahead. As he left towards the medical he began to remember the first time he had met her. The reason he had left his family and so carelessly followed her. Tallis was different from all the others who had promised him a true home free of the Wraith. Within the recent months she had shown how far she was willing to go to achieve such a promise.

He felt that she could keep that promise, after all she had been keeping them alive for the past two years.

The warning began to flash on a screen nearby, Torrin was scanning the systems.

"Commander, it says that there is an. . .unidentified life signature coming from the jumper bay," Torrin muttered pouring over the Ancient technology.

Tallis' eyes shot directly at the linguist before she got out of the chair and headed for the jumper bay. Brin quickly took over for her, sitting down staring into hyperspace. He could hear her heavy gait as she stormed down the hall.

**Chapter One: Commander Tallis verKarayen**

Tallis was in a royally bad mood. As soon as the warning had flashed on deck, she made a beeline for the where the supposed intruder was, the docking bay. Her crew cleared the way for their daunting commander, as she stormed passed them. After her recent run-in with the a couple of Wraith Hive ships, stowaways were the last thing that she needed. She was pondering why her scanners did not pick up another life signature before they made the jump into hyperspace.

Other things were weighing on her mind, such as the impending meeting with Atlantis, who wanted a ZPM from her, which she was still debating whether she should give it to them or not, and the fact that her ship was running low on medical supplies. Not one to panic, she let a sigh as she entered the bay.

Her attention was drawn upon the circle of her mechanics, who had formed a circle around something. A few were still working on the damage down to the Puddle Jumpers.

"Out of my way," she hissed at them. They cleared a path for her and she stared at the silver-haired man, and she took an instinctive step back.

"With all due respect, I don't think he's a Wraith, ma'am," stated one of the mechanics. There was a pool of red blood around his head. She noticed the silver hair was stained red. Her chief mechanic, Aliser was looking over him wrench in hand. He was shuffling his feet uneasily as he avoided her gaze.

"Aliser, did you do this?" She asked. An amused smile played at the corner of her cat-like mouth. Aliser was naturally a kind and soft person, he even refused to kill a rabbit once, despite not having eaten for a few days. It was hard for her to imagine him knocking out the well-muscled man on the floor.

"He came after Lyssa," he explained pointing to the youngest member of the ship. The twelve year old girl was holding her strange metallic tool like it was her lifeline as peered from behind a jumper staring at the strange man on the floor. She blinked up at the Commander, with large green eyes. Lyssa was one of the few people on the ship that possessed the coveted ATA, Ancient Technology Activation, gene. At that moment, she was sure Aliser knew they could not afford to loose anymore crew members possessing the ATA gene. It was hard enough to find people with the gene as it was.

"I see," said Tallis. "So I am to assume that this man went after Lyssa and you then managed to knock him out. . .how?"

"I came from behind, I don't think he knew where he was. In fact, we don't even know where he came from. Most of us were here fixing up the pod over there and next thing I knew Lyssa was screaming," he told her.

"So you have no idea how he got on the ship?"

"No."

"Damn, this is bad. Most of our systems are down, and we still have another hour before we reach Atlantis."

"He was going on about his mother, 'a spiky-hair bastard,'" Aliser leaned in closer, "And he also mentioned Cetra."

Cetra. That was an obsolete term that she had not heard for many years, not since she was forced off of Atteria by the Wraith. Crossing her arms, she stared at the man on the floor.

"He had this," said another voice. She glanced in the direction of the voice, a few feet away from him lay an abnormally long blade. It appeared like an impractical weapon, especially on the tight quarters of a space ship. Bending down, she examined it. It was a fine craftsmanship, whoever he was, he must have been someone important. As she looked over the blade, she became fairly certain that he was not Wraith. No Wraith she had met or knew carried such impractical weapons.

"Perhaps another form of the Wraith?"

"I hope not because that means we have led them to Earth's doorstep. Carter and Sheppard do not need to be bothered with such issues and neither do we."

"He could be a Runner," another suggested grimly.

"If he is a Runner, you better pray that he doesn't have an activated tracker," stated Aliser. Tallis stared at the strange leather outfit. Her mind was struggling to come up with anything logical about his sudden appearance on her ship, and she let out a soft sigh. Leaning over him, she rolled him over to look at his face. He seemed peaceful enough in his sleep and he showed no signs of being a Wraith. The only thing that made him seem different, was the long, pale hair. His skin was smooth and well-toned. Picking up what would have been his feeding hand, it was rough and normal. She was already forming assumptions, perhaps he was soldier back on his planet, maybe he was ex-military, or a mercenary. Suddenly his cat eyes flashed open and he shoved her against the ground gripping her throat tightly. His hand tightened as he stared into her eyes. Caught off guard, she struggled to pry off his fingers as she stared into his cat-like pupils. Aliser swung the wretch again and knocked him out again. She let out a grunt as the heavy body collapsed on her. A few of her subordinates were suppressing laughter, as their rather short, skinny captain was shoving the man off her body. Aliser helped pick up the man up and watched her as she rolled out from underneath him. He dropped the body on the floor, the man twitched a bit, but before we went still.

"Don't worry I didn't kill him," smiled Aliser as he brandished the wrench again.

"So he has violent tendencies, and he has cat-eye pupils like the Wraith," Tallis commented rubbing her temples. "Aliser, take him a cell and alert medical, but don't have them do anything until I get there. Lyssa get a message to Yelen, tell him that I don't think our prisoner is, uh,. . .human, but I don't think he's Wraith either."

"So tell him that he should be careful," half asked Lyssa. Tallis nodded before waving her hand dismissively.

The commander watched as Aliser went to the panel, and Lyssa fled out of the door down the hall searching for Yelen. Staring at the ceiling of the pod bay, she let out another sigh. A few of the mechanics lay the man on a stretcher and cleared him away down the hall. His blade lay shining on the jumper bay floor, she went to go pick it up. Suddenly, she heard screams and her head snapped in the direction of the hall. Her eyes were flickering with fear as she pulled out her particle magnum and burst through the doors firing. She never missed a shot.


End file.
